In the last decade or so, the remake has become a staple feature of Hollywood's movie output, as ubiquitous as the sequel. Increasingly bereft of original ideas of their own, studio executives pilfer the back catalogue of Hollywood classics and foreign language successes and "reimagine" them in a contemporary context. Occasionally the remake is done well, more often than not when the creators play loose with the source material and strive to deliver something fresh and unique. But more often than not the result is an inferior film, paling in comparison to the original and leading fans to cry out in dismay as yet another perfectly good movie is given a wholly unnecessary make-over for no reason other than to fill the coffers of a greedy studio. Still, even a truly awful remake can have a redeeming quality that prevents it from being completely and totally pointless. It might be a performance, a scene or a new way of looking at the themes of the original; a little something - a silver lining - which breaks through the cloud of dreadfulness and makes you realise that watching the remake perhaps wasn't such a complete waste of your time. Here are ten such movies - watch them at your own peril.
10. Oldboy
The Movie: The announcement that Hollywood was planning to remake Oldboy, Park Chan-Wook's seminal South Korean thriller in which a man is imprisoned for over a decade as part of an elaborate and mysterious revenge plot, immediately led to untold thousands of groans from fans of the original around the world. A beautifully shot, highly stylised film with an almost operatic approach to the depiction of violence, it is about as close to perfect as you can get. Needless to say, Spike Lee's remake lacked virtually everything that made the original so memorable, not for a lack of talent on the part of those involved but on account of studio interference, for which Lee has all but disassociated himself from the project. The Silver Lining: While most of the actors in the Oldboy remake are clearly doing the best they can, Sharlto Copley is clearly having a whale of a time chewing up every inch of the scenery he possibly can with his bizarrely-accented turn as the avenging villain Adrian Pryce. Bordering on the ridiculous, it's a performance that's so eccentric you can't help but commend him, as if he was curious to see what he could get away with.
